WHOLE FARM CHATTER

Grassfed Beef

By Marty Primus

According to an economic analysis recently completed by Su Ye, economist from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, The dairy animal is an economic powerhouse for our state of Minnesota. Just one cow on average generates $15,524 in annual economic activity. This is just from the milk she produces, but she also produces a calf and more than half of those calves are bull calves. Potential steers, potential grassfed dairy beef. Grassfed Dairy Beef! Why should you be looking at purchasing Grassfed Dairy Beef when you are looking for the beef entree for your dinner? By your purchase of grassfed dairy beef you are promoting the use of a duel purpose animal, an animal that produces both meat and milk from pastures. Why is this a better choice than just buying just grassfed beef? Why make the distinctions? Beef as long as it is fattened on grass has the same purported environmental and personal benefits to your health. But what of the economic health? Our forefathers brought the dairy cow to Minnesota for a reason and that was that our climate and landscape produces a great quality and quantity of forage for these dairy animals. In other words a cow could produce a lot of good quality milk without a whole lot of expense. More than enough milk for her and her calf, without a lot of acreage. Milk that could be used to make cheeses and butters to sell at local markets. The beef animal found its niche out west in the less hospitable climate where she would have to roam great distances to find the amount of forage to sustain herself and her calf. She developed the ability to produce meat and fat efficiently on poor quality forages, but not much milk.

The numbers listed above tell us why we need to make a concerted effort to buy grass fed beef. It is to the benefit of the greater community to have the dairy cow in Minnesota. She is an economic powerhouse and the dairy industry needs to be supported. The beef cattle breeds compete directly with the dairy cow for the good quality pastures that our dairy industry needs to survive. This hurts our dairy industry. If we don't produce enough milk in our state, the dairy industry infrastructure will continue its move out west where big confinement dairies are the norm. I am presuming that if you are reading this article that you are already knowledgeable on the health benefits of grass fed beef so I won't get into that with my limited time and space. I am concentrating on the environmental and economic benefits of the grass fed dairy steer. When you ask for grass fed dairy beef the next time you purchase beef you are promoting the production of a duel purpose animal that will produce both good quality beef and milk. If you just ask for dairy beef than you support the confinement dairies that are being promoted by our fair state politicians and the people in the know. You need to make the distinction. You need to do this if you want to see Minnesota return back to its roots, which found its vitality in the dairy industry, a grassfed dairy industry. The confinement industry, which is wrecking havoc on the economic and environmental health of our state, needs a tall thin cow, bred to produce lots of milk without moving much. When you purchase grassfed dairy beef you promote the production and breeding of an animal that is stockier and built lower to the ground. An animal that will move around and graze what is in front of her and produce both a good quality meat and milk. I myself along with most Americans including those people mentioned above in the know find that dairy animals grazing lush green pastures are soothing to the senses. That is why the magazines that promote big confinement dairies almost always have pictures of cows on pasture on their covers. But money talks and the big boys see money to be made with the big confinement dairies. They will let the next generation worry about the mess being created. You are different. You are reading this. You support a way of farming that leaves opportunities for the future. A way of farming that contributes to the happiness of all. Call or contact Robert or Kristin at the Whole Farm Coop to express your desire to support our efforts to change the catastrophic direction of the agricultural policy of our fair state, of our country. It will take a grass roots effort, aground swelling of support to get noticed. Remember money talks more than words. You will get what you buy. If you buy into the confinement industries cheap food policy, than that is what you shall have. But if you want a green landscape with clean earthy smells than you need be careful of what you buy. Grassfed dairy beef is a great start.

Marty

Fresh Air Farm

Meet Marty and Georgi Primus owner operators of Fresh Air Farm located 4 miles Northeast of the 2nd stoplight in Sauk Centre Mn. They farm just to the North side of scenic state highway 28 in the middle of Minnesota's dairy country.

Marty and Georgi have 5 children, Meagan Marie age 25, Joshua Jorge age 24, Benjamin Albert age 22, Abbilyn Rose age 11 and Emily Elizabeth age 5

Their mission is to enhance and enrich the biological populations from the soil up. To grow nutritionally dense food by working with nature and not against nature. To promote good stewardship, a stewardship that takes care of the water soil and the air which we all need for good health. To give the urban person a chance to partake in the building of a new food cultures A culture that is both ethically and ecologically sound. To reconnect the farmer and the consumer, in a shared commitment, to being good caretakers of this earth.

Fresh Air Farm is dedicated to the dairy industry, which has been historically the economic powerhouse of our rich Minnesota agriculture heritage. Every thing raised and done on the farm is done to enhance the dairy cow, from the pigs raised to turn the winter manure packs into rich soil enhancing compost and pigerate the soil to the chickens that are used for bug control out in the pastures. The bull calves are kept as dairy steers to promote the dual-purpose quality of good dairy cattle raised and maintained on high quality pastures. Goats would like to be introduced to help control the forbs and clean up the pastures of noxious weeds. This would b a nice compliment to the dairy cattle as they eat different types of forages. We still dream of setting up a mini dairy to direct market dairy products direct to consumers who share our vision of a cleaner safer world. Just a dream still.

The Primus Family sells almost all their products except the milk through the Whole Farm Coop. It is our belief that there is a need for an organization such as the Whole Farm coop to be the marketing arm for farmers wishing to direct market the farm fresh rewards of their labors. We feel that that unless you are an exceptional individual one can not be good at both producing and marketing. The time-spent marketing takes time away from the care taking. It is hard to be both good at marketing and producing. Usually one suffers. We want to produce high quality foods so the Whole Farm Coop is a much-needed marketing agency so that we can have the time to concentrate on being good caretakers of our earth. The Whole Farm coop is unique because it is set up to allow the consumer to partake in this care taking of our earth by promoting good sustainable farm practices by how they spend their food dollars. The Whole Farm coop offers the consumer the opportunity to counter the devastating effects of the Walmartization of rural America.

Marty Primus

There are some exciting things on the Land Stewardship Project website, they are having an auction, check it out at www.landstewardshipproject.org, plus alot of news information for the green community.